The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-05
The Sunday School.
LESSON FOR MARCH 10, 1887.
BY REV. ROBERT 7. POLK.
JACOB AT BETHEL.
GGenesis xviii. 1921
JACOB,

When Isaac was about sixty years old,
according to the record there was born unto
him two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob was
the second born. Esau was, therefore, the
natural heir of the tribal head and all that it
implied of authority and privilege, including
the Divine promise of blessing to Abraham
and his seed. But there was wanting in his
manifest character the qualities that would
promote the Divine purpose involved In the
call of Abraham and the blessing promised
to his posterity. He was thoughtless, easy
going and impulsive. He delighted in present
pleasure, was generous to fault, and appar
emily without any noble or even definite pur-
pose. He was the bold, restless and careless
hunter. On the other hand, Jacob was quiet,
meditative, and even crafty in the accom-
plishment of his determined purposes. He
loved the comforts of domestic life, was
content to remain with the encampment,
and enjoyed the pleasures and duties of his
mothers tent, cherishing, no doubt, a family
pride. The brothers were doubtless familiar
with the great purpose and hope of their
grandfather, Abraham, and the one chief
fact that his posterity should become numer-
GUS and powerful, and somehow be great
blessing to the world, must naturally have
been frequent subject of conversation in
the family. Of this Esau would be thought
less, and Indifferent to the responsibilities
and even honors involved in his position as
heir of the patriarchal Inheritance. But such
things would make deep impression on the
mind of one of Jacobs temperament and
utterly the honors and responsibilities of his
birthright, Jacob may have coveted the posi-
ton and opportunity which Esau despised.
His mother may have encouraged the hope
that he might somehow become the chief of
the tribe, for it is said to have been revealed
to her, before the birth of her children, that
the first-born should serve the younger XIV.
23).
One day when Jacob was making por-
ridge of lentils [red peaseI, Esau came from
a hunt in the fields, tired and hungry. I'm
petuous and childlike, he could not wait and
must be fed at once. He asked Jacob for
the porridge. Jacob asked of him his birth
right in exchange for the porridge. Esau
replied that as he was furnishing and would
the birthright for the porridge; or, it may be,
that since he might die before he received
the birthright, he would give it for the por-
ridge which he might possess and enjoy at
once. The bargain was ratified by the GUS
tomary oath, and Esau sold his birthright,
which he "despised," for "mess of pot
tage." But to buy it from his brother was
not to possess it. He must receive it as
blessing from his father.
We are told that Isaac loved Esau, who
was free and generous, and when returning
from the hunt was thoughtful of his fathers
appetite and preference for game. Jacob
was the favorite of his mother, because of
his quiet disposition and domestic tastes and
habits. When Isaac was old and feeble. ap-
preaching, as he thought, the end of his life
he requested Esau to go on hunt to secure
game for feast of blessing, when he might
give his dying blessing to his first-born and
fayorite son. The blessing had the force of
someU 1zk~. Last Will and Testament"
While Esau was away on the hunt, Rebecca
persuaded Jacob to take savory meal, which
she had prepared from kids, and receive, by
deception, from his dim-eyed father, the
blessing intended for Esau, and which con-
ferred the birthright that he had so cheaply
purchased from his elder brother. Rebecca
may have known of the bargain and sale of
the birthright, of which Isaac was doubtless
ignorant. Thus Jacob fraudulently obtained
the patriarchal blessing, which Esau would
have as fraudulently received after having
foolishly sold it. Though it may have right
fully belonged to him after the bargain, and
though he was the better qualified to promote
the Abrahamic mission, and though GOD
afterwards conferred the blessing on Jacob,
the means of obtaining it cannot be justified.
No end justifies fraudulent means. They
do not thwart the Divine purpose, but may
hinder and delay its accomplishment; GER
tainly do not promote it. Both Jacob and
Rebecca paid dearly for their fraud, as the
sequel of the story will show.
When Esau discovered that Jacob, by de-
ceiving their father, had obtained his dying
blessing and with it the birthright he had SO
lightly esteemed, he was angry and threat
ened to kill him after his fathers death,
which was then expected at an early day.
For his safety it was arranged that he should
visit his uncle Laban and procure a wife
from his daughters. With his fathers re-
peated blessing, he started on his long jour
ney to Haran. Our Lesson describes what
he experienced, probably on the first night
of his journey, and the impression it made
on him.